It seemed pretty tall so I checked, the thing is 8.7" tall. I understand that it is holding much more than a traditional HTPC would but I think I'd sacrifice performance for space. With a HTPC/NAS I'm thinking about going with this case(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... and calling it good. Gaming won't be a priority but it could fit a decently specced GPU in there if I wanted (which I don't). I guess it's just not for me.Reply

Yeah, that's way to tall. I've built an HTPC into this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... and it works great. It's got two slots for 3.5 drives, and one dedicated 2.5 slot, so it'll work as a NAS with a couple large storage drives and an SSD system drive, but it's only 12.75" deep, so I don't need a super-deep shelf.

Plus it'll fit up to 10" GPUs (I've got a GTX 460 in with room to spare), although with newer, capable midrange cards being barely longer than the PCIE slot, large card support isn't so critical these days. Reply

This is a gaming HTPC. it has to be tall enough to hold full size cards and deep enough to hold modern GPUs and the power supplies that feed them. Those slender HTPC cases that only hold half-height cards aren't going to hold anything capable of playing games.

However, the prices are just stupid high. I have built my own HTPC and I can create what they are selling for half of the price with just as fancy a case.Reply

Yah, if you wanna do gaming with it, and I believe thats what the thing is mainly for, you will need a certain size for all the necessary hardware. And its still a lot smaller and nicer looking than a desktop tower.

Also did some math on the entry system. Couldn't find exactly the case they are using but the ones with similar quality cost up to 1200 bucks. So I guess their price is actually fair.Reply

It has enough height for a little ventilation underneath it, the motherboard + MB tray, the GPU + bridges, and enough clearance for electrical connections and the water tubes. I use a Norco 4U case ($79.99!) and it is 7.5" tall, only 1.2" shorter than this thing.Reply

A better option is to make a thin HTPC with a nice CPU and GPU - which is put to sleep when not in use. Then make a server/NAS to do the tuning, storage, remote access... in a nice low-power profile since it will be on 24/7. I have a colossal WHS setup in the basement with 12 HDD and a low-power AMD processor. It backs everything in the house up and holds all the media, all while only eating 45 watts.Reply

Minus the name, I would love to have a maxed out one of these. I don't like managing different systems and so it would be nice to have one system that did everything. However, I could never see myself buying one of these because to do all of the things it wants to do doesn't work very well. Power consumption is way too high to be a great NAS and it is too big to be a great HTPC. Maybe others of you feel differently, but for the price I would rather have an HTPC/NAS and then a separate gaming rig. That would be sooo much cheaper too.

In any case, the internals are beautiful. As someone else pointed out, it looks like the Mac G5. I would love it AT tested this to find out if the engineering level matches the level of styling. Reply

Well guess what, every PC can do all that (tv tuner needed / blueray drive (just use your DVD ) - so really there's no THERE, there.

People have a freaking fit though... they want their HTPC just so, then they buy some stupid dvd player, then a blueray player, then some "box" as if at home they need some stupid storage for the "whole house"....

So, the main thing I like about this company is they aren't idiots specializing in one thing.Their box does it all, just like all my PC's.

That's all any of those named devices are, anyway, people, but you're all so golldurn brainwashed and so full of yourselves, none of you know it, and likely never will.

Now as for my requirements that may be present in some unpolished form - the ISSUE IS - when I'm surfing, the partiers need to be having their gaming war, AND the loungers need to be watching their flick - blueray, netflicks or otherwise - a camera playing the trips vids... all that HAS to be able to happen all at once...

So what I want is a box like this with perhaps two boards, or maybe virtual OS/s handling separate mice, keyboards, gaming pads, and remotes - all at once. There should be 4 screens - one or two across the room - so boost or wiring is necessary, with multiple sound outputs controllable - all that has to be integrated and color coded for setup. WIFI keyboards and mice, game pads/joysticks, wireless for printing, etc.

What we're always lacking is an actual multiple duty system that allows more than 2 groups of people to interact at once.

So the "companies" are still missing the ball - this is closer because any PC can do all this - at least this is closer - now let's hear about many operators with the various activities going on all at once - no one has to stop and wait and give it up for someone else... come on - WHEN.....Reply

Starting at 1798 for the base series with no upgrades. The case looks nice. Do I need my cpu and gpu usage meter to be filling my room with light? No, I would have that permanently turned off so there's money wasted.

I'm not really big on it having to look so neat and proper and just like a stereo receiver. Why does a HTPC HAVE to look like a stereo receiver to go near your tv? It's a stupid restriction. Wit the kind of money you are spending on a LEET system with some proper specs not just bare minimum crap I could build something utterly amazing out of the bitfenix prodigy. Yes I know it's bigger and doesn't look like a stereo receiver, but it does the same job.

I could easily put in an i7-3770k overclocked to 4.5ghz on a 140mm double thick rad push/pull and a gtx 690 with a liquid cooling block and a 240mm double thick rad with 4x fans in push/pull and all the fans in the system would be dead silent noctua fans and it would be infinitely cheaper then what the leet would cost with full water cooling and an i7 and 690Reply

Why would they use a stereo sound card for that box when most home theatre setups use 5.1 or 7.1 speaker setups. If they wanted to use that line they could have gone for the xonar essence ST with a xonar H6 card and got the benefit of the headphone amp and been able to output anything from stereo to 7.1. Sure you could output digital to a receiver but why use an expensive sound card to do that, it makes no sense to me.Reply

If you want EAX 5.0, ALchemy and 8 channel lossless over HDMI, you need a discreet soundcard. I expected this system to have a auzentech x-fi hometheater hd as an option (with internal hdmi passthrough).Reply